Tree carvings
by charrybarry
Summary: Prequel to MatterOfTrust's "You and Me"


**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ouran. It's so tragic!!

Kaoru swirled his straw around his glass of lemonade with the tip of his finger, extremely bored. What only made it worse was the fact Hikaru wasn't with him. Making him feel uneasy. Plus Kaoru had also noticed that his older brother had been acting strange around him for the past several weeks. He wondered if Hikaru was ignoring him. It was the middle of spring, and the weather had just warmed up enough to be able to go outside, and their families flowers in the garden had just started to bud. So Kaoru decided to take in the scenery of his blooming backyard, to get his mind off Hikaru.

He wasn't doing so well. Kaoru's mind started drifting off to his brother every few minutes and he stared at his drink just thinking about him. Then he would snap out of his trance and try again. This began to be a cycle until Kaoru looked over to the willow tree in the far corner of the yard, to see Hikaru looking at the trunk, looking as if he was concentrated on something.

Kaoru smiled and started to casually walk over to him. What Hikaru was doing didn't seem all that exciting. He had one hand on the trunk and was moving it slightly, once Kaoru got close enough he saw that along with concentration Hikaru's expression had a sort of melancholic affect to it. Kaoru wondered what his brother could be sad about, there was nothing he could think of. Was Hikaru hiding something from him?

He didn't notice his younger brother until he had moved some of the vines drooping from the tree away to get under the shade.

"Kaoru!" Hikaru yelled, slightly jumping up.

"What're you doing?" Kaoru asked, still sounding casual.

Hikaru looked down. "Nothing."

"Well that's obvious. Seeing how you're acting right now." Kaoru said casual, leaning against the bark of the trunk. He was surprised when his brother flinched.

"Nothing that you would want to know." He said quietly.

"Hikaru, what's wrong?" Hikaru dropped his hand that was on the trunk, and Kaoru then saw the metal carving tool he held. Kaoru took a step forward to see if he was seeing correctly, but instead he saw what it had been doing. Carved into to trunk was the writing H + K, and Kaoru blinked as his eyes widened in surprise.

He continued staring at it until he felt a pair of hands cup his face. Which made him gasp, as he looked up into the identical face of his brother. Hikaru refused to look in his eyes.

"I'm sorry Kaoru," He said, and brushed his lips over his twins, hesitantly adding a bit of pressure to it. Kaoru froze, and a few seconds later, Hikaru pulled back. "but, I love you." He finished, and dropped his hands so he could quickly sprint back towards their house.

Kaoru stayed frozen like that. Until his legs seemed to give out from under him and he sat down on the grass. He went over the past few weeks, finally understanding why Hikaru would tense if he got close enough, and why he almost seemed reluctant to discuss brotherly love acts for the host club.

Kaoru had just thought that Hikaru was a good actor, but really, it must've been extremely easy for him. Yet also difficult. He's able to express his true feelings, but also always see the obliviousness in his twin's eyes. It wasn't fake, not an act at all. It was real.

Kaoru thought about Haruhi. He thought about his plan in Karuizowa with Hikaru's date with her. That puzzled him. Kaoru was sure that Hikaru had feelings for her. Maybe he misread them, because if it was Haruhi, Hikaru was in love with, he would have kissed her just now and not him. And there would be another H carved into that trunk, instead of a K.

His eyes rested on the metal carver, and he winced remembering his brother's face while he was drawing it. Kaoru now understood the depressed factor, while he looked back at the carving, and arched an eye brow. He stood up eyeing the H and the K next to it. And Kaoru couldn't help feeling that there was something off about it.

--

Hikaru looked out the window to their backyard a few hours later. Checking to see if Kaoru was still there. The sun had just gone down, leaving the sky still a bright scarlet, the deep shadows casting over the gardens made it harder to see, but what from Hikaru could tell, Kaoru was gone.

Hikaru felt that it was now safe to go outside again, so he did. Now that the weather had just gotten warm enough, he was outside a lot more often. He liked walking past the flowers the best, watching them make their process to blooming, now they were almost there.

He was trying to avoid it. He knew it. It was obvious. But eventually he found himself sitting against the trunk of the willow tree, though still refusing to look at what he had carved. It would just hurt him more. He instead looked to the place where they had stood when he kissed him. Hikaru knew what the consequences would be when he did it, Kaoru wouldn't want to speak to him. But he couldn't bring himself to regret it. He probably would, once they got to the host club, and their brotherly love act would eventually stop because Kaoru would most likely not cooperate. But when he did it, it just felt right.

Involuntarily, he brought his head up to look at the carving, and gasped. He scrambled to his feet. The H and K was untouched as far as Hikaru could tell, but around it was a heart, which he had _not _drawn there. He touched the lining of it to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating it. No, the indentations he could feel on his fingertips unmistakably. He was still feeling around the edges when , he heard a rustle of leaves and jerked his head around to see Kaoru making his way out of the shadows. The metal carver in his hand.

"Kaoru," Hikaru breathed.

Kaoru looked up at him, his expression blank, as Hikaru desperately tried to read it. He looked down at the metal he was holding in his hand and lightly let it drop. Then, he walked slowly over to his twin, and softly put a hand on his shoulder, finally meeting his eyes.

"Hikaru, I love you too, but," Kaoru started and Hikaru's eyes widened, waiting for what Kaoru was going to say next. Suddenly the hands on Hikaru's shoulders gripped him tighter, and pressed him against the trunk of the tree, Kaoru's expression now devious. "unlike you I am _not _sorry."

Hikaru couldn't respond, because Kaoru's lips cut him off. Hikaru's arms instantly flung around him, pulling him closer. Their lips moved together, their breaths became heavy. And Kaoru slipped his tongue inside Hikaru's mouth causing him to moan. After a few more moments, their lost their balance and fell, Hikaru landing on top of Kaoru when they hit the ground.

"Kaoru! Are you all right? I-" But Kaoru only laughed and pulled his lips back to Hikaru, His arms latching around his neck.

**--**

**3 months later:**

_Kaoru looked away from Hikaru to glance up at the willow tree's trunk. He smiled again at the carving in the tree's bark; a roughly carved heart with scribbled writing inside, which said: H + K. Hikaru followed Kaoru's gaze and stretched his neck back to look up at the tree too._

"_How long has it been?" Hikaru asked vaguely. Kaoru didn't look away from the carving when he answered._

"_How long since what?" he asked._

"_Since we've been together."_

_Kaoru looked down at Hikaru, who was staring up at him again._

"_Well…" Kaoru said, thinking back. "We both made that carving after the first time we kissed."_

_Hikaru began kissing Kaoru's neck, which was quite distracting to Kaoru._

"…_uh, and—that was about," Kaoru paused as Hikaru pulled his hands out from under his shirt to run them down Kaoru's sides and to his hips._

"…_that was about…"_

"_3 months ago." Hikaru answered, as if he already knew the answer from the beginning._

"_It seems a lot longer than that," said Kaoru, stretching his neck as Hikaru continued to kiss his throat and jaw._

"_I think that's because…" Hikaru rubbed Kaoru's hips with his hands. "…we have been together this whole time."_

"_Hmm?" Kaoru mumbled questioningly. He could feel Hikaru's hot breath on his neck, and he closed his eyes._

"_I mean," Hikaru continued. "I'll bet we've always loved each other like this."_

**Author's note**: Thank you MatterOfTrust for letting me write this prequel to your wonderful story You and Me. It's one of my favorites of what you have written, so if you out there, have not read hers GO NOW!


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